A better Start to Life
With just under 50% secondary school enrolment, Ghana’s children need help to stay in school.
Children from poor families in rural Ghana are starting life so far behind their peers that it can seem impossible to break out of the poverty cycle. Lacking some of the most basic necessities like shoes and good clothes, it can be hard for some young children to attend school at all, and those that do, have frequent absences because of illnesses like malaria, diarrhoea, or having to stay home when other family members are sick. Add to this a lack of resources in their area, and the odds are stacked against these little ones. “The communities that work with lack social amenities like early childhood centres, libraries, computer laboratories, good roads, and good drinking water,” writes Crossroads’ partner, an NGO working in rural Ghana.
Crossroads is shipping to this group, to help them give Ghanaian children a better start to life. They already run highly successful literacy programmes and other child-centred activities, but they want to open an early childhood centre and a computer school to train teenagers in employable skills. Our shipment will help them establish these two new ventures.
Literacy unlocking futures
Our partners are trying to boost those numbers by encouraging and empowering children in their education.
More than 80% of children in Ghana finish primary school, but that number plummets to less than 50% enrolment in secondary school. Our partners are trying to boost those numbers by encouraging and empowering children in their education. They run exciting programmes like interschool quiz competitions in rural communities, after-school literacy camps and even a “street library” that takes books to places without community libraries.
Little Oliver is one of their success stories. He was a below average student, but thanks to the street library and the literary club, he has improved so much that he participated in the regional Spelling Bee and is now the president of his school literary club! He was also selected as an assistant school prefect through his hard work.
Shipment will include:
- Computers for office use, and to set up a computer lab for youth training
- Office and household furniture, and household goods to set up a childcare centre
- Clothes and shoes for impoverished families who don’t have enough of the basics to send their children to school
The Lungu family know what it means to feel starving. Each year, their small farm plot only grew enough food to last three months. For the rest of the year, they lived on what small amount of food their meagre income could purchase, which was scarcely enough to live on.
Maiko (left) didn’t think he would ever finish school. His parents died of HIV/Aids, leaving Maiko and his siblings in the care of their elderly grandfather. Crossroads’ partners took Maiko into their programme and supported him, not only through school but on to a tertiary Education College. Now, Maiko works as a teacher and supports his entire family.
